SoTier

ROTFLMAO! The offense CAN certainly be worse than the offense was last year! Maybe you don't remember the offenses under Dick Jauron in 2008 and 2009, but I do. Those offensive offenses make the 2017 Bills look like a juggernaut. While the Bills showed lots of passing in Preseason Game 1, there's no guarantee that they'll continue to be a passing team in the regular season ... or that the OL will perform even close to its 2017 level ... or that any of the QBs are competent NFL starters ... or that injury won't take out Shady or Clay or Benjamin ... or all three.

The problem with this explanation is that Zay didn't just drop that one pass in the Carolina game. He dropped numerous passes throughout the season. He failed to regain any confidence all last season, so why do you think he will magically regain it in 2018? I'm not saying he won't, but I do question why you are so sure that he will.

Sorry, but the Pegulas lost me as a supporter when they not only kept Russ Brandon as president of the Bills, but promoted him to head honcho of both the Bills and Sabres. Brandon's claim to fame before coming to the Bills was the dismantling of the MLB Florida Marlins the season after they won the WS ... but increasing profitability by cutting payroll. Brandon's record as Bills' boss was all of 2 winning seasons in the last 12 years and 1 lucky playoff appearance while keeping the Bills notably profitable. That merits a promotion only if profitability counts more than winning. I'll believe that the Bills have made winning rather than profits their top priority when I see them start winning regularly ... and so many of their best players aren't going off to help NE, New Orleans, Seattle, and Philadelphia win Super Bowls because the Bills wouldn't pay them what they were worth.

Why do you feel that you have the right to speak for all the members of TBD? This is a message board, not a propaganda site for the Bills, and posters have the right to express their opinions even if they are critical of the Bills. If you don't like that, then you should follow your own advice about leaving. You are out of line.

This is what too many Bills fans don't see or refuse to acknowledge. The 2017 team was very flawed, and making the playoffs was due partly to McDermott's coaching (keeping the team from imploding in mid-season and maximizing its opportunities) but mostly to sheer good luck. They could have easily been a 5 or 6 win team last year, and even then, they needed the Ravens pass defense to suffer a brain fart and enable Andy Dalton to throw a winning TD pass in the closing minutes of the final game of the season that put the Bills in the playoffs. The playoffs were "fun" but they hardly portended anything dynastic; too many usually good AFC teams had off-years, opening the WCs to teams with only 9 wins, which is pretty unusual.

I wish it was, but it's how I feel, and it's going to take several years to determine who's right or wrong. Certainly the Pegulas' ownership of the Sabres hasn't produced success since the team has missed the playoffs seven straight years.

This has been my exact problem with all the cheerleaders this off-season/pre-season. I am very skeptical about most of the personnel moves the Bills have made in 2017 and 2018, primarily because too many of them seem to be in the same short-sighted philosophy of sending proven vets packing rather than pay them that has plagued the Bills since at least John Butler and AJ Smith departed for California. As a Bills fan for more than fifty years and a former season ticket holder, I'm no longer willing to give any HC or GM/HC combo or owner a free pass without concrete results for more than a single season. The Bills have conned their fanbase too many times in the past, so I'll believe that the current regime has a formula for winning regularly when double digit wins, playoff appearances, and playoff wins happen frequently rather than maybe once every two decades.

That's easy. I think that McDermott is an excellent HC. His teams are well disciplined, and he gets the most out of the talent he has.

You obviously choose to ignore what doesn't fit your narrative. Below is the first post in this thread. I think declaring Daboll god just might qualify as a poster going "over the top positive after the first preseason game" but maybe that's just me being my usual negative self.

How dare you NOT blindly jump on the Beane/McDermott bandwagon! You are definitely a TROLL! What do you mean by "meaningless"? Didn't the Browns go 4-0 last preseason? If all these Bills cheerleaders watched some of the other preseason games on the NFL network, they'd see that most of the teams expected not to be playoff contenders probably looked "better than expected". Most of the QBs who played in Preseason Game 1 looked competent or better. Those should be red flags warning fans not to read a whole lot into success in Preseason Game 1.

Actually, even if a QB looks good in"some games in the regular season", it might not mean much. Both Trent Edwards and Mark Sanchez looked pretty good as rookie QB starters. They even started out their sophomore seasons very well. Unfortunately, neither one progressed as QBs beyond where they were early in their sophomomore seasons. Most QBs who become starters early on and then fail frequently follow this pattern of looking good up to a certain point, and never getting any better.

IIRC, Zay looked pretty good in preseason but couldn't catch a cold in the regular season, so I'm not jumping on his bandwagon until he starts producing when the games actually count.

It's getting lots of hype on NFL network, so there's going to be a big national audience. If he's playing with their 2s vs our 2s, probably. I think Allen could have a good outing against their 2s on defense but our 2s on offense may not be good enough. Agreed. He looked better than lots of teams veteran backups, most notably Paxton Lynch.

Tell that to Derrius Guice, the Redskins, and their fans.

Bradford was a proven starter. He still is. Peterman played well in a couple of series in the first preseason game ... he also played decently in the preseason as a rookie and then screwed the pooch when he got his opportunity to start in the regular season. I don't think the Bills will get much for Peterman even if he shines in preseason.

I agree. I watched the replay of the game. Lynch's performance was easily the worst one by a QB that I saw among the first preseason games. One of the Denver announcers said that he hadn't developed at all, but his performance really wasn't even acceptable for a rookie QB much less a third year veteran. Lynch doesn't seem to have a future even as a backup. Kelly looked really good, but he followed Lynch which made him look even better.

Isn't your statement a perfect example of a "sense of entitlement" ....justifying why some idiot throws away a rare career opportunity simply because the specific job situation doesn't meet his standards?

My thought exactly. He'll stick with the Bills for 2018 simply because we don't have anybody better than him ... although if the Bills scour the waiver wire after final roster cut down, that may not remain true.

Right-o. Good coaching fixes everything. So, why isn't Dareus still on the Bills?

I think Allen's accuracy is decent enough. Certainly it doesn't appear to be terminal to his becoming a franchise QB if he can master all the other stuff he needs to master, and it's that other "stuff" that will likely determine his fate more than his accuracy (or lack of same). I'm more concerned that Allen demonstrate that he makes good decisions based on making the right reads as quickly as possible ... and that only comes with some experience, so it's going to take him a season or more to show if he can do it consistently.

In what alternative universe are the Bills "a good Quarterback away from being a top 15 scoring offense"? Their OL struggled last season and lost three members over the off season, none of whom were replaced by players with equivalent talent. They had 1 NFL caliber WR last season, and that's about what they've got this year. The TEs are decent. The only position group that they've upgraded on offense is RBs ... because Ivory is better than Tolbert. Neither McCarron nor Peterman are starter material, and Allen is a rookie who is going to get dumped into a bad situation probably much sooner than he should because the other two either get hurt or suck miserably. Keep spinning fantasies.

I think that the Bills' issue will be that the awful offense is going to kill the defense's effectiveness -- they're going to have to defend too many short fields, they're going to be on the field too much, and if the defense can't score TDs, the Bills offense isn't going to score many, so how long is the defense going to be able to hold up under the pressure of not only doing their own job but constantly trying to recover from offensive mistakes? I agree that Josh Allen is the Bills only hope for offensive respectability of any kind, but that's not going to happen this season because without an NFL caliber OL or WR corps, not only is the passing game DOA, but the running game is going to be an anemic shadow of itself because of the poor OL and no threat of a passing game. I think getting a top 3 pick in the 2019 draft is very likely, and the #1 pick a real possibility. Getting 5 wins will be quite an accomplishment ... and I wouldn't bet more than I can afford to lose on them winning at least that many games. The Bills may not be the worst team in the NFL, but I think that they are the most unbalanced, and I think that's why they're going to lose a lot of games despite having a what appears to be a stout defense ... and that's not even factoring in injuries.

Buffalo ... Turning third overall picks into 6th round conditionals since 2017. Buffalo ... Turning fourth overall picks into 2nd rounders since 2017.

Maybe beating the crap out of some guy is how Coleman broke his hand not once, but twice ...

What's there to be "thoughtful" about? Mitchell isn't healthy enough to play. Even if I thought a one-legged WR might be faster than some of the guys currently listed as WRs for Bills, I would consider it unethical. I think the NFLPA would, too.